Report recommends background checks

A report reviewing five willed body programs across the
University of California system was recently released by Navigant
Consulting, Inc., per request of the UC Regents. Included among the
proposed changes to the willed body programs is a call for stricter
background checks.

The firm’s report stated key gaps within the
program’s infrastructure and human resources department
include a limited use of background checks, a lack of training and
education for personnel, and no evidence of proactive compliance
reporting.

Navigant was hired in March 2004 as an outside industrial
consulting firm to aid the UC Board of Regents in their review of
all five of the university’s willed body programs.

“The university itself could have conducted its own review
and report. But its findings would not have had that much
credibility,” said former Governor George Deukmejian, who
coordinated the systemwide review with the University of the Office
of the President.

“Navigant seemed the most qualified and had greater
strengths than the other firms which responded to the request for a
proposal (identifying the best practices for the willed body
program),” added Deukmejian.

The call for a complete review of the all the UC willed body
programs was triggered by charges of financial impropriety at the
UCLA Willed Body Program and the arrest of Henry Reid, the director
the program.

The incident, along with a number of alleged mishandlings of
willed body cases at UCLA, UC Irvine and UC Davis in the past
decade, stated that there were issues which needed to be identified
and dealt with in order to affirm the program’s
credibility.

Such issues were summed up in the current state assessment
portion of the Navigant report which noted that only two of the
campus’ programs were performing criminal background checks
and only one consistently completed a financial check. The firm
also reported that reforms of the human resources policies and
practices were necessary.

Despite efforts to meet current recommendations, the program at
UCLA is still suspended. It currently allocates funds to acquire
materials from other UC willed body programs for medical
education.

Henry Reid, the former program director, was hired to clean up
the program in 1996, after several lawsuits claimed the university
allegedly mishandled donated bodies and disposed of bodies in an
inappropriate manner.

Reid’s arrest in March 2004 raised questions about the
validity of his credentials and also the utilization of background
checks by the human resources departments of willed body programs
across the UC.

Some blame Reid’s hiring on inadequate background
checks.

“All that the lack of effective background checks means is
that we had an unreliable person in that position,” said Dr.
David Taylor, the director of medical services at the UC Office of
the President.

In the past, background checks were only performed for employees
in “sensitive positions,” Taylor said.

The Navigant report recommends more stringent background checks
in the future, including the currently utilized criminal and
financial background checks, as well as education and employment
checks, all of which should be undertaken as a condition for
employment.

In the report, the consulting firm also calls for the programs
to “embrace a culture of communication for reporting
incidents of potential fraud and wrongdoing.”

Such a culture may lessen and prevent chances of employee
mishandling of bodies and cadaveric material.

“In the past, internal audits would review potential fraud
reports, but now the dean’s office will deal with these
reports directly,” Taylor said, referring to the dean of the
David Geffen School of Medicine.

Though the changes are not implemented yet, they will be
standardized soon, Taylor added.

Moreover, whistleblower protection for employees reporting fraud
will soon be in place as well, Taylor said.

According to the regents, several changes have already been made
within the UCLA Willed Body Program since the Jan. 19 report was
presented.

According to the UC Regents Committee Audit on Jan. 19, the UC
willed body programs are an essential part of medical education and
research. Yet the programs are unable to ensure their activities
are “conducted with the highest degree of ethical,
professional and security standards.”